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Hat tip to Black Freedom @Freedom4Blks on Twitter for reminding me about this case. It inspired me to write this follow-up.

On September 26, 2015, I blogged on the shooting of Jeremy McDole in Wilmington, Delaware. Jeremy was partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair.

Jeremy McDole

A call to 911 reported that Jeremy had wounded himself with a gun. Further investigation found that there was gunshot residue on Jeremy’s hands. While wounded and confined to his wheelchair, Jeremy was shot by officers 16 times.

The arrival and subsequent actions by four police officers were caught on cell phone video. The video was considered in the investigation into the officers’ use of deadly force.

The video showed Jeremy McDole rubbing his knees as Senior Cpl. Joseph Dellose and three other officers – identified in the report as Senior Cpl. Danny Silva, Cpl. Thomas Lynch and Cpl. James MacColl, moved into the open, without cover.

The investigative report found that Dellose fired at Jeremy approximately two seconds after initially ordering him to show his hands, creating uncertainty among other officers who, not knowing where the gunfire came from, also turned their weapons on McDole. Read the rest of this entry →

I certainly hope that the DOJ looks into the man who made the 911 call, because it could be pretext to violate John’s civil rights because of his race.

John Crawford’s parents met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on May 19, 2015 (Photo: WLWT TV)

Loretta Lynch will investigate the death of John Crawford III, 22, who was shot last summer as he held an air rifle inside a Walmart in Ohio, according to WLWT TV.

Lynch, who was confirmed as the U.S. Attorney earlier this month, met with Crawford’s family Tuesday during a visit to Cincinnati to discuss police reform, reports the television news station.

Crawford’s parents tell the station that Lynch met with them for about 15 minutes, and pledged to investigate the shooting, which drew protests over the killing of young Black men by police around the country.

The family has filed a suit against the city of Beavercreek, the two Beavercreek officers involved, the police chief, and Walmart Stores Inc., charging negligence and violation of Crawford’s civil rights.

The Department of Justice conducted an investigation and found that the Miami Police Dept. (MPD) engages in a pattern or practice of excessive force with respect to firearm discharges, in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section 14141. On July 9, 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, submitted its report to the Honorable Tomas P. Regalado Mayor, City of Miami, Florida, and Chief Police Manuel Orosa, City of Miami Police Department.

Miami Chief of Police, Manuel Orosa

This is the second time that the Department of Justice had cause to investigate the Miami Police Dept. in about a decade. The current investigation commenced on November 16, 2011, after MPD officers fatally shot seven young African-American men during an eight-month period spanning 2010 and 2011.

Like the 2002 investigation, the current investigation also arose during a wave of corruption allegations involving sworn MPD officers and supervisors, including allegations of extortion and obstruction of justice.

Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General wrote:

“Among other findings, our investigation uncovered a number of troubling MPD practices, including deficient tactics and supervision, as well as significant delays and substantive deficiencies in deadly force investigations.”

In its 14-page report, the DOJ found that shooting investigations fail to adequately analyze and explore facts to determine whether a shooting is justified. The report outlines many of the cases that the DOJ investigated and highly criticized the MPD’s poor tactics and its failure to timely and thoroughly investigate officer-involved shootings, including where one officer is involved in multiple shootings. The DOJ report expresses that they are troubled by the delays in MPD investigations. The MPD appears to first wait for the State’s Attorney to investigate and during that time, does not require those officers involved to prepare written reports of the shootings. The DOJ found that the practices of the MPD in delaying investigation renders disciplinary action impossible.

Seven officers participated in over a third of the 33 officer-involved shootings reviewed by the DOJ. All seven officers intentionally discharged their weapons at individuals on multiple occasions over the course of four years. One officer discharged his weapon in four separate incidents during a three-year period, resulting in three deaths. Another officer fatally shot two suspects in separate incidents within a two-week period, and both of those investigations are still pending after more than two years.

The DOJ noted that from 2010 and 2011, 17 officers were discharged from duty. Four of the 17 involved officers have since been arrested, indicted, or convicted of crimes unrelated to their on-duty shootings.

Since the DOJ opened its investigation and conducted on-site debriefings, the number of officer-involved shootings decreased to almost half of the total for each of the preceding four years.

The DOJ is hopeful that they can collaborate in the immediate future to craft and implement court-enforceable remedies to correct what they have identified.